Palatinate

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

Either of two historical districts and former states of southern Germany. The Lower Palatinate is in southwest Germany between Luxembourg and the Rhine River; the Upper Palatinate is to the east in eastern Bavaria. They were once under the jurisdiction of the counts palatine, who became electors of the Holy Roman Empire in 1356 and were then known as electors palatine.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

proper n. A historical region of Germany, originally a territory of the Holy Roman Empire

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. The province or seigniory of a palatine; the dignity of a palatine.

proper n. Either of two regions in Germany, formerly divisions of the Holy Roman Empire; the Lower Palatinate or Rhine Palatinate is now within the Rhineland-Palatinate; the Upper Palatinate is now within Bavaria. It is usually referred to as the Palatinate.

transitive v. To make a palatinate of.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

n. The office or dignity of a palatine; the province or dominion of a palatine.

Neither the lands of the palatinate, nor those which Conrad had inherited, formed a compact whole; but by further acquisitions which Conrad made, the foundation was laid for the principality to which the name Palatinate has clung.

One of the main reasons that prompted Louis XIV to sue for peace and to abandon his claims on Lorraine and the Palatinate was the rapid physical decline of the inglorious Spanish monarch, Charles II, of whose enormous possessions the French king hoped by diplomacy and intrigue to secure valuable portions.

Most so-called “Pennyslvania Dutch” came from the mid-Rhine region, mostly the Palatinate, Swabia, Alsace (a Germanic region at the time, Louis XIV notwithstanding), and up the Rhine as far as Switzerland.

Now, with a series of important state elections scheduled this year in states such as Berlin, Baden Württemberg, Rhineland Palatinate, and possibly North Rhine Westphalia, opposition to private-equity property deals is growing again.